Describe popular culture in Britain at the beginning of the 1960's.

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Introduction

Q1) Describe popular culture in Britain at the beginning of. The 1960's. The Sixties were an exciting revolutionary period of time with great social and technological change. Some people called it the "decade of discontent" because of the race riots in Detroit and La, and the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Other people called it the decade of "peace, love, and harmony". It was called this because of the peace movement and the emergence of the flower children. The sixties were about assassination, unforgettable fashion, new styles of music, civil rights, gay and women's liberation, Vietnam, Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, peace marches, sexual freedom, drug experimentation, and Woodstock. All of these components caused a revolutionary change in the world of popular Music. The beginning of Rock and roll started with The Twist. By Chubby Checker This song changed our dancing moves. Other dance songs that helped this period of rock and roll along include: The Mash Potato and the monster mash. The Beatles started the British invasion in 1964, when they had their first television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. ...read more.

Middle

Leonard's trendy salon in London. Mr. Leonard put her picture in his shop window, and a short time later that picture was featured in the London Daily Express with a caption that read "This is the face of 1966". Although fashionable clothes were becoming easier to come by as stores were now opening all around the country for example 'bazaar' and 'biba', appealing to all age groups and introducing new trends and styles these shops were soon enhanced and introduced as bigger and better into the capital cities of Great Britain. Fashion was no becoming shorter and more colourful and more unlike the fashion of the 1950's were Younger men and women were wearing similar clothes to their parents, now they were given the opportunity to develop their own individual styles and tastes. Television became more popular in the 1960's with new shows beginning to appear; also commercial television was now being introduced for the first time. Kitchen sink dramas and television theatres began to become popular and being at a regular television slot each week were becoming part of peoples weekly routines. ...read more.

Conclusion

Carries on films were now being produced into series and being shot in various locations and settings. There had been successful films in the 1950's but some of the most memorable films were made in the early 1960's. The two main topics of films were memories of the war for example: 'The bridge on the River Kwai' telling the story of a Japanese Prison of war camp during the second world war, other examples of war films are 'Cockleshell heroes', 'Dunkirk', 'Sink the Bismarck' and 'The Dambusters'. Many British films however did not portray 'real life'. They had Story lines about middle class people living luxurious life - styles. They described a Britain that people wanted to live in, rather than the Britain that they actually did live in. The films rarely dealt with the problems that ordinary working people had to contend with such as, Unemployment and poverty, a film that shows this is 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' as flying cars and child catchers do not really exist. The 1960's played a vital part in the revolution of the entertainment and fashion industries, developing individualism and equal opportunity throughout Britain. ...read more.

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